The Torturous History of the Balkans

The Balkan region has occupied an important position in the history of the modern world. No other region has caused so much friction between the leading powers of the time as the Balkans. So one needs to know its torturous past to understand the turbulent present.

The word Balkan comes from Turkish: it means mountain. It was invaded by the Turks in the 14th century and they ruled it for 500 years. In the 17th century, the Austro-Hungarian empire become the supreme power in the North and loosened Turkish control. The Treaty of Berlin in 1878 redefined the boundaries of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became independent. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina came under the Austro-Hungarian rule.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman empire began to crumble and a wave of nationalism swept the Balkans. War broke out in 1912 when Montenegrin troops marched across the border into the Ottoman empire. Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece joined the war a few days later. The Turks were driven out of Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. Later, the Serbs occupied Kosovo and Macedonia. In 1914, Austria's crown prince Franz Ferdinand came to the Balkans to quell the unrest. He was shot in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist, which triggered the First World War.

After World War I, the Versailles Peace Treaty again redefined the boundaries of the Balkans. The kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded. In 1929, King Alexander I changed the name of the state to Yugoslavia - land of the southern Slavs. Serbs were the dominant of all the ethnic groups and this brought resentment against them. The Croats killed Alexander in 1934.

During World War ll, German troops invaded the Balkans. They were warmly welcomed by the Croats and Hitler created a new state for the Croats which included Bosnia. In a series of civil wars, Serbs and Jews were killed in Croatia. Germany occupied Serbia, the Italians occupied Montenegro.

Josip Tito, a communist, fought against the Germans. After the II World War, Tito created the state of Yugoslavia. It was a federation of six states - Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. It restored stability in the Balkans but later national and ethnic tensions increased due to unemployment and debt. Tito died in 1980.

In 1992, the Yugoslav Federation began to fall apart. Nationalism once again swept the Balkans. Slovenia and Croatia were the first to break away and one of the most dirtiest civil wars in the history of mankind took place. Bosnia also joined Croatia and Slovenia in declaring independence. Bosnians were driven from their homes by Serbs in what became known as 'ethnic cleansing'. (Ethnic cleansing is a process in which an advancing army of one ethnic group expels civilians of other ethnic groups from towns and villages it conquers in order to create ethnically pure enclaves for members of their ethnic group.)

By 1993, the Bosnian Serbs controlled 70% of Bosnia and besieged the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. Bosnian Croats were also fighting for a Greater Croatia. UN peacekeepers were unable to bring the situation under control.

In 1995, the Dayton Agreement was signed due to increasing U.S. pressure to end the war. Two self-governing entities were created, the Bosnian Serb Republic and Muslim-Croat Federation. They had their own governments and armies. A NATO-led peacekeeping force was sent to oversee the implementation of the peace process with regard to the military aspect, which is primarily to control any flare-ups between the different ethnic groups.

In 1998, the Kosovo Liberation Army demanded Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia. This led to an armed conflict between the ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav security forces. Hundreds were killed and nearly 300,000 civilians were displaced from their homes. The international community brought the situation under control through diplomatic and military means. With the authorisation of the United Nations, NATO peacekeeping forces were deployed in Kosovo to begin the task of restoring peace to the province.

Still Serbia was under the control of its dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Massive unrest in Serbia brought an end to his rule and he is now under trial in the International Court of Justice, The Hague, for war crimes.

At present, the Balkans is experiencing a fragile period of peace. But no one knows how long this will last as the Balkans is known for springing surprises with its ethnic and religious diversity embroiling the major powers of the world into conflict.